Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar are two Icons of modern corporate art. Many of the logos they collaborated on 40 years ago are still seen today: NBC Peacock, Chase Manhatten Bank’s symbolic circle, Xerox and Mobile are still seen on trucks, copiers and letterheads. Geisman developed the roadway signage that is in use on highways in America and internationally.
In 1962 “Watching Words Move” was published, during the same era the two also were regular contributors to Playboy Magazine’s humor pages and regular prize winners in all forms of print and communication arts.
The simple, single word stories playfully express how type (the essential backbone of visual communication) had a brain and could speak, could mean; that the placement and subtle alteration of letters on a page could suggest motion, narrative‹‹just about anything.
The font they used exclusively was Helvetica. This Bauhaus inspired sans serif face was created in 1956 By Max Miedinger for a Haas Type Foundry (they actually created each of the letters in steel molds in which lead was poured to form moveable type; each variation; condensed, bold, italic, etc. had to be individually created) in Zurich and was considered a landmark in pure letter forms which emphasize cleanliness, readability and objectivity. It was a sensation world-wide and has become the most widely used sans serif typeface of the 20th century. Licensing and providing the molds made Haas Foundry very, very rich.
Your assignment is to create your own words that move. Your final piece must be just one word, black and white and Helvetica. The best one wins a prize…
Be Creative!
Thank you to Ron Linn for this project.
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